


the twilight kingdom

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [185]
Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Curses, Family, Fractured Fairy Tale, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 07:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1680086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She learned from Maleficent’s failure. There are no loopholes here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the twilight kingdom

**Author's Note:**

> Title: the twilight kingdom  
> Original, gen, PG  
> 720 words  
> Prompt: Author's choice, author's choice, kingdoms in the twilight, forests forever on the cusp of autumn

Everything is frozen at the exact moment the curse fell – water being poured into mugs, servants setting platters down, a dog’s tail mid-wag, a cat halfway onto a cushion. From the castle, it spread to the town, everyone going about their lives, forever mid-step. Horses never moving, children underfoot in the kitchen, a whip just hitting the back of a criminal and never leaving. 

The surrounding forest is the same. Everything within 50 miles of the castle will never again move, or age, or die. Should the curse ever be broken, life will continue on. 

Of course… well. She learned from Maleficent’s failure. There are no loopholes here. 

…

Henry knows the story as well as anyone. The king was punished for insulting a fairy (no one ever thinks her name, much less says it aloud) and the capitol cursed into – something. It’s not like anyone who saw it got out to tell. After half a century of the citizens trying to govern themselves, the three bordering countries annexed them. Da says there was mostly relief, after that. Finally there was someone in charge, even if one of them had been an enemy before the king insulted the fairy. 

Most people moved away from the former capitol and its eerie stillness. No one ever went close anymore, avoiding it like the plague, and maybe they _got_ the plague. That might’ve been the curse. 

But Da is the loremaster, appointed by their new king, and he has to record what happened. So he and Henry (to carry the bags) go back towards the former capitol. They know the boundary of the curse because it is spring everywhere but the capitol’s woods. “Don’t go in, son,” Da says, sketching one of the cursed trees into the official tablet. 

It has been autumn for nearly a hundred years here.

.

That night, Henry cannot sleep. Da’s slumbering easily, but Henry is thinking about curses. Curses can be broken. How many people are trapped in the twilight? Every curse can be broken by the proper hero. 

. 

The next morning, Roderick wakes up and his son is nowhere in sight. “Henry!” he calls. Not yet worried. Henry is fifteen and probably exploring. There are no predators around here anymore, and no one foolish enough to venture this close to the curse.

By mid-morning, Roderick _is_ worried. Where is his son? 

He turns a horrified gaze towards the cursed woods. Surely not… 

But there he is, Henry, mid-stride in the closest boundary of the curse. “Henry!” Roderick shouts, running towards him and then stopping at the very last moment possible, nearly falling forwards into the curse. “Henry!” 

Roderick sobs into his hands. It is nearly a full hour before he controls himself, coming up and discarding ideas, pacing around, shouting at the sky and his son and the fairy and the king who angered her. He cannot leave here without Henry, but what of Meghan and Khora, back home? If he stays with his son, what will become of his wife and daughter? 

He stays up all night and finally, at dawn, decides to try. He has his walking staff, a shepherd’s crook, though they have not kept sheep since being annexed. He carefully pokes the staff over the border, keeping his feet and hands away as well he can, trying to hook Henry’s arm. But however he angles it, it never catches, and he finally fumbles it. The staff lands all the way in. 

He begins to cry again, falling to his knees. “Oh, my boy, my boy,” he cries, “Henry, you stupid boy.” 

He cannot stay. He gathers up a few supplies and the tablet, and returns to the king with a warning. 

King Haralda takes the warning to heart and orders a great wall built around the capitol of a realm that no longer exists. 

Roderick goes home to his wife and daughter, and never forgives himself. 

.

(In four centuries’ time, the wall crumbles. A fairy’s anger is vicious but _can_ wane. Henry stumbles forward, the whip stings the criminal’s back, the horses trot, the cat lands, the dog’s tail hits the servant setting down the plate. 

The curse is still a punishment, though – how can a king be a king without a kingdom? The world has moved on as leaves finally fall.)


End file.
